Meta is reportedly developing varifocal lenses for its Quest virtual reality (VR) headset, following the discovery of strings within the device’s firmware.
A recent discovery has been made by Quest firmware dataminers Samulia and Anagan79, in collaboration with Optimizer developer Anagan79, and brought to our attention by VR enthusiast Luna.
Upcoming quests have been discovered in this way on multiple occasions previously. Long before Quest Professional debuted on the market, Samulia had unearthed references to eye and face monitoring roughly a year prior. Despite the passage of time, certain features that were previously mentioned as being in development continue to languish, including the Venture Avalanche cloud PC-based virtual reality (VR) streaming service and long-awaited integration with Discord.
When Meta unveiled its Mirror Lake concept headset in late 2022, CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that the technology’s potential could be realized in products by the second half of this decade.
Reports suggest Meta has reignited efforts to develop Quest Professional 2 in November.
META began working on a Quest Pro 2 in November 2023, according to reports from The Information.
In March 2023, a leaked internal Meta hardware roadmap revealed that the 2024 Quest Pro 2 candidate was scrapped in favour of a more audacious and “way out there” model slated for release at some point in the future. In light of the recently unveiled roadmap, this innovative headset is poised to revolutionize the virtual experience with the integration of Codec Avatars, enhanced decision-making capabilities, and a thoughtful retention of Quest Professional’s signature rear-battery design. Can we realistically expect that it would also feature adjustable focal length capabilities?
This month, The Info revealed that production on the headset kicked off in November.
Context: What Is Varifocal?
Most commercially available head-mounted displays currently employ fixed-focus optics. While each individual’s gaze will yield its unique angle of view, the collective image remains centered on a specific point of focus, typically within mere meters from the observer’s vantage.
Your eyes will adjust to converge or diverge towards a digital object, but they can’t accurately accommodate the unique distance to the virtual item. The so-called Vergence-Lodging Battle has been a longstanding phenomenon in the field of human vision. The prolonged use of digital devices can significantly reduce the sense of authenticity in the digital realm, leading to a perceived fuzziness of virtual objects that may potentially exacerbate eye strain and induce pressure.
At Facebook’s F8 conference in 2018, the company unveiled a prototype headset called Half Dome, which featured eye-tracking technology that allowed for real-time adjustment of display orientation based on user gaze.
Although Half Dome successfully resolved the Vergence-Lodging Battle, its mechanical approach presents significant reliability concerns in practical applications, rendering it ill-suited for commercial deployment.
At Facebook’s Oculus Connect 6 in 2019, the company revealed details about Half Dome 2 and Half Dome 3. The Half Dome 2 features enhanced reliable actuators and a more compact yet decreased field of view design.
The Half Dome 3 design diverged significantly from its predecessors, eschewing the incorporation of transferred components for a fresh approach. The innovative Half Dome 3 display technology eschews traditional transfer methods in favor of a cutting-edge approach, leveraging a precision-engineered stack of liquid crystal lens layers to render stunning visuals. Utilizing varying voltages to dynamically adjust the curvature of each lens layer enables the creation of a diverse range of focus distances by combining distinct patterns of “on” and “off” states. With six layers of precision-crafted glass and optical elements, the camera’s lens is capable of producing a staggering 64 distinct focus distances.
During an early 2020 conversation, Facebook’s Director of Show Technology Analysis, Douglas Lanman, stated that the expertise of Half-Dome 3 was “nearly ready for prime time”. After a considerable delay of more than four years since the initial claim, will varifocal finally emerge from research facilities and take its first steps towards commercialization?
